Overview
Solid state drives have recently entered the mainstream computer world through netbooks and laptops. To the average consumer they can be a confusing and new option. What are the benefits of solid state drives? Are hard disk drives still worth it? Why do solid state drives cost more? This knol attempts to answer these questions of the average consumer.
Note- A significant amount of computer terminology is used in this knol. If you have any problem understanding what certain words mean, I recommend another knol, Computer Terms Dictionary , for help.
Solid State Drive
(Abbreviated SSD)
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| An SSD (case removed to expose flash chips) |
A solid state drive is a newer storage option, unlike a hard drive, solid state drives do not have any moving parts, as they use either flash based memory or DRAM modules, instead of a spinning magnetic platter and arm with read/write heads. Solid state flash drives are much more common than DRAM designs as they are much cheaper and versatile. There are very few RAM drives offered, I will not be covering them at this time, as they are mainly a server product.
Storage Capacity
Solid state drives store data on non-volatile flash memory, you can clearly see the many flash chips on the pcb of the solid state drive. Each of these chips work in combination to determine the storage capacity of the solid state drive. However, densities are still much lower than a hard disk drive, and range from 8 GB for cheaper netbook solid state drives to 320 GB for very expensive models. Solid state drives still cost several times as much as hard disk drives of the same capacity.
Performance
Solid state drives use two main technologies. Single-level cell NAND flash chips and Multi-level cell NAND flash chips. MLC based solid state drives are much more common as they can store more data and our thus much cheaper. SLC based solid state drives are significantly faster but cost much more and have lower capacities. Cheaper solid state drives often offer worse performance than a traditional hard drive, but can fit into smaller spaces, use less power, and have their own advantages. Some high-end solid state drives can now outperform hard drives in all categories of performance. In general solid state drives are known for faster boot times, low seek-times, fast random access times and constant performance (Keep in mind traditional hard drives performance decreases due to file fragmentation and the location of the data on the platter). This adds up to mean that solid state drives do better in general performance, but hard disk drives still do better in large file transfers as solid state drives advantages are minimal here.
Disadvantages
The biggest problem with solid state drives remains their high cost and low capacity. Solid state drives still cost around $2.00-$3.00 per GB while a hard disk drive is around 20 cents per GB. This is paired with the fact that the average solid state drives capacity is around 50 GB makes them still limited to netbooks and laptops. Solid state drives also have a limited lifespan, but most manufacturers now include programs to limit this problem and extend a solid state drives life to near the average hard disk drives. Solid state drives also have slower write speeds.
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